Divorced by her husband's family and rejected by her own! She defiantly turned her life around

Tugen's father was having a sweet dream when he suddenly heard a noise in the distance. He hid behind a tree and looked over, and saw a group of people walking hurriedly toward him. He immediately got up and ran.

As he was running, he tripped over a tree root and stumbled forward, his head hitting a tree hard. A thorn from the tree pierced his head, leaving a bloody hole, and he cried out in pain.

He knew something was wrong, and ignoring the pain, he covered his wound with his hand and ran away.

A villager suddenly stopped. "Did you hear that? There was a noise up ahead."

"I heard it too, it sounded like someone shouted."

"Hurry, maybe the dog's life is just ahead."

Several young men rushed to the front, quickly putting a distance between themselves and the others. Tu Gen's father had already rushed down the hillside, and the young men could only see a shadow moving by.

They rushed downhill in one go. When Tugen's father saw that the people behind him were catching up, he was very anxious. He wanted to run faster, but his legs felt like they were made of lead and weighed a ton. Blood was still flowing from his head, and his hands and face were stained with blood.

Perhaps it was fear, perhaps it was excessive bleeding, or perhaps it was running too fast, but he suddenly felt dizzy and almost fell over.

He forced himself to keep walking forward, but the villagers of Liujia Village had already caught up. When they got close, they saw Tugeng's father with his face covered in blood. "Uncle Gousheng, you can run pretty fast. What happened to you? Your face is covered in blood."

He pointed to the wound on his head, and after saying only two words, he fainted. When the young men looked, they saw a bloody hole the size of a chopstick on his head, from which blood was still gushing out.

"He must have lost too much blood, which is why he fainted." A villager picked up a dry clod of earth, crushed it with his palm, and applied layer after layer of fine soil to the bleeding wound, finally stopping the bleeding.

By this time, the others had arrived. "Hey! That old guy ran pretty fast, but why is his face covered in blood?"

"He must have fallen. He has a bloody hole in his head, which I've already covered with a plaster."

The clan chief's son arranged for everyone to rest for a while, and then they would take turns carrying the person back.

Once the man was caught, the sense of urgency from before vanished. Liu Hongyu then asked about Tugen's father, and everyone started talking about it, one after another.

Upon hearing that his father had been arrested, Liu Hongyu became anxious and wanted to rush back immediately. Seeing his concern for his family, the clan chief's son told everyone to head back.

Tugeng's father had already fainted, and no one tried to wake him up. Everyone felt that waking him up would only cause trouble, so it was better to just take him back home.

A man squatted down on the ground. "Come on, put him on my back. I'll carry him for the first leg."

Three or four men put the man on the man's back. The man stood up and shook the man, and the silver in his chest pressed firmly against the man's back. "Help me see what he's carrying in his chest. It's hard and painful to cut."

They put the person down from their backs and touched their chest. Sure enough, there was a hard object. They reached in and pulled it out. When they opened it, they found three 10-tael silver ingots, a 100-tael silver note, and a few pieces of loose silver.

The villagers didn't recognize banknotes, only silver. However, Liu Hongyu and the clan chief's son and grandson did. After comparing the amounts, they knew that this should be the silver that Da Wang's family had lost.

The clan chief's son took the items and said, "Stop guessing. This silver should all be the money that Da Wang's family lost." The villagers then recalled the incident at the ancestral hall when Da Wang's family lost silver, which seemed to be 130 taels.

The man had been carrying her all the way and was exhausted. Carrying such a large person up the mountain was quite strenuous. When someone offered to take over, he said to Liu Fusheng, the clan chief's son, "Uncle Fusheng, why don't we wake her up and let her walk on her own? It would be faster. There are so many of us; surely she can't run away."

Liu Fusheng pinched Tu Gen's father's philtrum, and the man woke up in pain. His first instinct was to reach for the silver in his chest, but he found nothing.

"Stop touching it, it's all here with me."

When Tugen's father saw the small cloth bag in Liu Fusheng's hand, he stood up and said, "Give me back my things quickly."

"Your things, the things you took, you stole other people's things and hid them, and then you pinned the blame on everyone else. You're really a cunning and wicked person who doesn't speak up."

"You're talking nonsense! That's my money! What right do you have to arrest me? Give me back my money!"

Tugeng's father was very unruly, cursing and swearing, lagging behind and refusing to move, which was annoying to listen to. "Shut his stinking mouth!"

They tore a piece of cloth off his clothes and stuffed it into his mouth. Then, they quickly wove two short ropes from the tough grass in the mountains and tied his hands and feet tightly, rendering him unable to move.

The villagers were very cooperative. They found a dead tree trunk as thick as an arm, threaded it through the knotted ropes around the person's hands and feet, and lifted them up to walk.

Afraid of falling, Tu Gen's father clung tightly to the tree trunk with his limbs, making whimpering sounds.

The villagers laughed and said, "If you were honest, we wouldn't have to go through all this trouble."

Back in the village, the clan chief, fearing the person would escape, simply threw him into his own woodshed, locked him up, and had several men in the family take turns guarding him.

Liu Fusheng handed the silver to his father, "Father, this was found on Gousheng, it should be the silver from Dawang's family."

The clan chief put the silver away and told them to find a few strong young men in the village to go to the county town early the next morning.

Baini Bay.

When the yamen runners entered the village in the morning, they encountered villagers from Bainiwan on the way. They were curious about what so many yamen runners were going to Liujia Village for. She wanted to find out in advance so that she could report back to her village chief.

They followed the constables all the way to Liujia Village, witnessed the whole incident, and immediately took off running towards Baini Bay. They ran all the way to the village chief's house, shouting, "Village chief, village chief, no, something terrible has happened!"

Wei Yuanguang was cleaning the cattle pen. He put down his shovel, clapped his hands, and said, "What kind of behavior is this, all flustered and panicked?"

He sat down on the stone bench and looked at the two men who had caught their breath. "We just encountered a lot of yamen runners at the crossroads in town. They were heading towards Liujia Village."

Curious, we followed them to see what was going on, so we could report back in advance.

Guess what? The constables not only arrested many villagers from Liujia Village, but they also arrested Village Chief Liu.

Wei Yuanguang was startled and quickly asked, "Why are they arresting people?"

"It seems that someone died in the mountains, and they stole someone's belongings and injured them."

Wei Guangyuan understood perfectly well what had happened in Liujia Village. Although they tried to cover it up tightly, nothing stays hidden forever. Liu Maoquan was confused; his actions would inevitably lead to trouble sooner or later. Unfortunately, he didn't listen to anything Wei Guangyuan said.

After the two finished speaking, they left. The news quickly spread throughout Bainiwan. Ma Daya and Wu Shuimei, two villagers, were confused by what they heard and wanted to get the latest gossip. So, the two of them went to Liujia Village to find their good friend.

As soon as Ma Daya saw Zhu Cuihong, she said, "Cuihong, it's been a while. What have you been doing at home lately? I haven't seen you out and about."

"Something happened in the village, and the head of the household is keeping me from going out. He's afraid I'll gossip and spread rumors. The village has issued a gag order."

"Our men saw the villagers being arrested by the yamen runners, even the village chief was arrested. What did they do to warrant such a large-scale operation by the authorities?"

Zhu Cuihong talked about everything from the villagers going into the mountains to dig for treasure to the yamen runners arresting people. The yamen runners, Ma Da and Wu Shuimei, listened with great interest, occasionally making a few exclamations.

Ma Daya said indignantly, "You can't blame them for reporting to the authorities. Those people brought it on themselves. They want to pin the blame on others after something happens. That's too much of a bullying."

If it were me, I would report it to the authorities too.